The video is now available for Hawke Robinson's RPG Research Project discussion/speech at November's 2014 ZoeCon II. ZoeCon is from Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, creators of The Gamers, The Gamers II: Dorkness Rising, The Gamers III: Hands of Fate, Journey Quest, and many other shows.

We have a TR professional panel coming to the university shortly, and we had a teamed class assignment to create questions in advance for the panel, with APA citations, research, etc. Each team member had to create 4 questions. One of my questions was regarding the lack of any effort by the TR industry to use RPG in any format as a recreation therapy intervention modality. It will be a few weeks before the panel meets, but here is the question as submitted to the professor tonight....

Join us for session #2 - Spartan Show Adventurer's Guild - I will be DM as we broadcast live the 2nd RPG session. Tuesdays 8:00 pm to Midnight (Pacific time). Includes new sketch artist drawing scenes real-time during the game! Upcoming features include audience ability to influence events and other factors in future games!

I was attending the Professional Issues in Therapeutic Recreation course today, we were going over a chapter regarding the history of Recreation Therapy and Therapeutic Recreation, and the ever-recurring battle over TR vs. RT. This triggered some thoughts regarding the use of a role-playing game (RPG) as a therapeutic intervention modality, namely "Role-playing game Therapy" versus "Therapeutic Role-playing gaming"...

Just a quick update, As of November 2014 I began volunteering weekly at Saint Luke's Rehabilitation (Spokane, Washington, USA) in their Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) departments (among others).

I had a chance to briefly speak, at a high-level introductory level about the current status around the world regarding the use of role-playing games (tabletop, live-action (LARP), or computer-based) to achieve therapeutic and/or educational goals. The video will be available soon.

I have spoken with many of you in recent years about your efforts to use role-playing games for achieving educational and therapeutic goals. I will be presenting very soon (possibly this weekend) with an update on the world-wide projects related to this topic. If you have a project you would like me to mention to the world, please contact me ASAP to let me know so I can include more up to date information. This includes tabletop, live-action (LARP), and computer-based forms of RPG.

I just sent to the program head, the latest draft of a recreation therapy-related activity program plan using role-playing gaming to prepare for and utilize the metropolitan Bus system for Autism spectrum participants.

The monthly RPGResearch.com meetings will begin broadcasting through Google Plus Hangout and Youtube.com/rpgresearch, on the first Saturday of each month from 11:00 am to Noon (Pacific Time). Please join in the conversation regarding the therapeutic and educational uses of role-playing gaming in all forms (tabletop, live-action, computer-based, etc.).

RPG Research has been linking to Abantey's RPG workshop for years. Recently I stumbled across a short 7 minute documentary on their efforts to use role-playing games for educational and other benefits from a summer camp approach in California. Well worth checking out...

Why is WotC spreading out the release of the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, and Monster Manual over several months, rather than releasing those core components in the same month??? They are making a free PDF of the Basic set available for download, but the initial download will only be a basic Players Handbook, with no rules to actually run a game. They are planning to emulate the online gaming world's "Free to Play" approach. They will be releasing future free basic versions of the rules via PDF that will include some rules for play, and then also staggering the release of the hardcovers. Internal Correspondence reports the release dates for many of the new D&D products that Wizards of the Coast has announced for the Summer, beginning in July.

Though this is a computer-based RPG (Role-Playing Game) study, pending testing with tabletop, it seems possible that it could apply in tabletop RPG, LARP (Live-Action Role-Playing), and maybe even CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) forms of RPG as well?
I would be interesting to perform the same style study with the other formats to see if the format changes the results (or not).
Received 10/26/13; Revision accepted 12/11/13

Here is a status update on some projects from the past month developing tabletop and live-action role-playing games for use as educational and therapeutic intervention modalities for autism spectrum adults.

This is my first prototype rough draft in the development of role-playing gaming as a modality for therapeutic / educational interventions. For a Recreation Therapy course in which I am currently enrolled at Eastern Washington University, our task last week was to "Develop a Tabletop Leisure Education Game" for a group of Autism Spectrum (and other) adults in a facility near the Seattle area (we are in Spokane, WA). Of course I selected (with the approval of my assigned partner in the project, Tabletop Role-Playing Gaming (RPG ) for this assignment, in this case a 1940s Gumshoe Detective-style mystery set in urban Chicago...